Blue Sky Development & Regeneration

blue sky changes lives in the most fundamental way imaginable and the lives that it changes are those whom society has, in large measure, given up on – ex-offenders. with a mission to reduce re-offending and challenge negative perceptions about people with a criminal record, blue sky wins commercial work and offers the resulting jobs solely to ex-offenders. giving someone a job has been described as the greatest charity that anyone can perform and it can reduce re-offending by up to 50%. despite this, approximately 75% of prisoners are released to unemployment resulting in astonishingly high re-offending rates. in response, blue sky was set up to offer 6-month employment contracts to ex-offenders and a tailored package of support comprised of training, housing support, mentoring and onward jobs brokering. it is an approach that works – since 2005, we have given jobs to over 1,500 ex-offenders. of our leavers 51% have left with training qualifications, 48% have moved into permanent empl